The significant mental health crisis the world is experiencing is at RED level status, so understanding the types of therapy available to you and your family in the moment of crisis is extremely important, and I know not everyone is a therapist, like me. I am hopeful my knowledge and experience will help you or someone you love should a mental health crisis happen.
Part of finding the right fit among the numerous licensed counselors out there is once you get started you develop a good working relationship with the person you’ve chosen. That does not mean that you turn into best friends who text each other and spend time hanging out outside of the office.
Why did I know I wanted to become a licensed counselor? I don’t have an exact day or time but I can definitely tell you that it was somewhere in middle school. For sure there was a GIANT blinking red light over my head by the time I was in high school. I was ALWAYS the one that my friends came to for advice. I was the “momma” to all my friends.
What is therapy? If you watch any movie from the 70s, 80s or 90s therapy is typically portrayed as somebody sitting with their therapist in their office on their couch talking about their feelings, worries, past trauma and other personal issues.
What is art therapy? Art therapy is a new technique in terms of therapy styles that have been around since Freud was coming up with his odd therapeutic styles and practices.
Some of it was seriously unusual and yet, he is the Father of Modern Psychotherapy. Of course that was over 100 years ago and since then the world has come a very long way.
Getting a teenager to do anything that wasn’t their idea is virtually impossible.
So counseling adolescents and getting them to talk about their feelings or admit that they need to talk about their feelings can feel completely impossible.
I remember being a teenager. I remember struggling so significantly that my parents did have to finally get me therapeutic help.